Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
One cast member reflects on RAG's Winter Wonderland pantomime.
Bristol’s new theatre, The Bierkellar, is open and has already started its programme of theatre, beginning with Rescue Me by Far Out Man Theatre.
Nicholas Hytner, Artistic Director at the National Theatre, has asserted that the hugely popular stage production of War Horse will gain more of a profit than Spielberg’s film version. This seems to be a wild, self-aggrandising hypothesis, with the DreamWorks film already taking £3.94 million at the British box office, and the stage version of War Horse earning only £3 million annually. However, the initial production costs for the film naturally far outstrip the National’s show, and with the stage version touring to Broadway, Los Angeles and Melbourne, perhaps there’s more truth in Hytner’s opinion than first meets the eye…
Radio 5 Live’s short story competition has completely changed the life of a taxi driver in Middlesbrough. Ishy Din was listening to the radio when he decided to enter the competition on a whim. To his surprise, his story was chosen, produced, and aired on the radio. Since then, the cabbie-cum-writer has written a play, Snookered, which will premiere at the London Bush Theatre and then begin a UK tour. Maybe it’s not about who you know, but about what you listen to?
The final curtain call of Jersualem, with the inimitable Mark Rylance, took place on the 14th January. Ticket-hopefuls queued for over 24 hours, uniting on Twitter by using the hashtag #occupyJerusalem, and celebrating with bottles of champagne. By the end of the run, tickets were going for over £350 on eBay. Isn’t it cheering that theatre can still draw in queues and displays of stamina that could give Harry Potter or Twilight fans a run for their money?
Revolution is stirring the boards as the cast who did the original cast recording of long-running West End favourite, Les Misérables, have found out that the royalties from that recording are going to be discontinued. Equity members say that they were unaware that there was a contract clause that stated that the royalties would only continue for 25 years, and the actors union has promised to fight their cause. First Night Records stand by their decision, with John Craig, Managing Director, stating how he feels hard done-by when “Equity sign a contract and then moan like crazy when we stand behind the terms of it”. Revolution in non-fictional France is also rife, as backstage staff of the Comédie Française, one of Paris’ theatrical institutions, have gone on strike over a 332-year-old pay agreement. The pay and bonus system has apparently been unaltered since 1680, and technicians and stage-hands alike are earning a lowly annual income of what, in British terms, amounts to about £16,500. The timing is terrifically bad for the theatre – the main auditorium has been closed for a year for renovations, and now it is reopened, the theatre needs to recoup the resulting losses.
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